Edgar Rice Burroughs
(1875-1950),
first gained recognition when in 1912 All-Story magazine serialized the story
"Under the Moons of Mars, using the pseudonym Norman Bean. (When this
story appeared in book form it received its final title, A Princess of Mars,
with the publisher abandoning the pseudonym and utilizing the author's real
name). By the time the last installment of "Under the Moons of
Mars" appeared, Burroughs had completed what was to become his most popular work
with the creation of one of the best-known literary characters in the entire
world: Tarzan of the Apes.
There were 25 “Tarzan” and numerous
“Mars” sequels, including THE GODS OF MARS, 1918, THE WARLORD OF MARS, 1919,
THUVIA, MAID OF MARS, 1920, and THE CHESSMEN OF MARS, 1922 but to the delight of
innumerable readers he had many more and varied tales to weave, exhilarating
adventures set on other planets and in lost lands and civilizations.
Burroughs’ fertile imagination
wrought fabulous prehistoric worlds (At the Earth's Core, The Eternal Savage
and The Land That Time Forgot) as well as tales of horror (The Monster Men).
He combines social commentary and
sci-fi in “The Lost Continent”, speculating on the fate of Europe had the
United States not entered WW I, and “Beyond the Farthest Star”, portraying a
planet entering its second century of total warfare.
The works of Edgar Rice Burroughs
will endure as classic tales of adventure, romance and wonder.
